electrical short... help...

[superaccord]

ok, every so often my car will be completely dead. i mean no dome light, no dash lights, and it wont even turn over, just as if i didnt have a battery in the damn thing. i checked my battery and its at 13volts. so thats not the problem. it will jump start, but while its running when i push on the brakes it basically dies. then everytime i jump it like that i shut it off and try to start it, and its completely dead again. then, a couple days later i'll go to start it and it'll start right up like no prob.whats the prob here?
matt

[OldSchoolSwap]

ewww! that is not good, how bad are all your wires under you dash and engine bay? Chop chop job?
I don't even know how to help you on that one.
It sounded like alternator problems but you mentioned that it wont turn on one day and you'll wait a few more days, then it'll start that tells me that the alternator did charge the battery.
I hate electrical issues

[catalin]

How about the main fuse under the hood at the fuse block?? Check all that... if you see 13 volts at the battery then why don't you have a look at the fube blocks.... same reading?? keep following the power wires, there must be a faulty connection somewhere.

[rocky2]

Same thing is happening with me. I'm keeping a spare battery in trunk just in case. I noticed that my horn was not working at the time it drained out battery now it works, I wonder if it related? Weird Now horn works and battery hasn't gone dead in weeks.

[superaccord]

i have checked everything. it did it again the other day so i went out, took off the negative bat cable for a sec, then put it back on, and it started. i think i just ma have a bad ground.

[CoAsTeR]

thats exactly what happened to my old car.... it was just a bad ground that caused all those problems. Clean up and/or replace your ground connections and you should be fine. bad grounds can cause some really weird problems with electrical.

[rocky2]

Go to - http.//www.forparts.com/hon3.htm

They say if you leave your rear window defogger on it will drain battery when shut down

[catalin]

All rear defrost switches are designed to turn off when the ignition is turned off.

[smufguy]

Do u guys think the Main relay has anything to do with what he is experiencing? U can always sneak one in from the junk or pay like a buck for it. see if that would solve the probs.

[njpeter]

I recall reading a bulletin about the defrost switch draining the battery somewhere..something to be aware of..I had a mystery battery drop dead a few weeks ago..but I do have a porta-jumper in my trunk..just some tense moments for the next few weeks..so far so good...